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Capt warns of stricter curbs if Covid situation doesn’t improve in a week
A day after announcing curbs to tackle coronavirus, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday warned of imposing harsher restrictions if the situation does not improve by the next week
A day after announcing curbs to tackle coronavirus, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday warned of imposing harsher restrictions if the situation does not improve by the next week.
The warning comes amid a surge in Covid cases and fatalities in the state. On Tuesday, the state government issued orders to ramp up Covid-19 testing and vaccination and also directed closure of schools and colleges in the state till April 10.
Addressing a virtual meeting with top health, administrative and police officials, the CM said a decision on further curbs will be taken after a review of the situation on April 8. “I will watch things for a week, and then if there is no improvement, we may have to go for stricter curbs,” he said.
Punjab is witnessing a surge in the infections with more than 2,000 new cases being reported daily. There is also a rise in the number of fatalities due to the disease. On Tuesday, 65 Covid deaths were reported in the state. Mohali, Kapurthala, Patiala, SBS Nagar, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana are reporting the maximum positivity rate. The overall positivity in the state stands at 7.6% as of March 24.
Underlining the need for aggressive vaccination, particularly in areas with high case and cities with more than 300 cases, Amarinder directed officials to reach out to eligible people at the mohalla-level in the worst-affected districts to motivate people to get vaccinated. He also directed stricter enforcement of Covid restrictions and protocols in the worst-affected cities of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Mohali and Amritsar.
Head of the state’s Covid expert committee Dr KK Talwar said more enforcement of restrictions was needed in the urban areas, which were reporting higher cases. Director general of police Dinkar Gupta said since March 19, 1.3 lakh people have been taken for RT-PCR testing on being found moving around without masks. Of these, 391 were found positive, he said.
Taking note of the inconvenience caused to commuters, the chief minister did away with the one-hour silence on Saturdays to commemorate Covid warriors.
Taking strong exception to the Centre’s criticism of the Covid-19 management in Punjab, Amarinder said the state’s rate of tests per million was higher than the national average and claimed the situation would have been better if the central government had not “delayed” the vaccination process.
Had the central government acceded to the state’s request for allowing vaccination of all 50+ category population earlier, instead of delaying the decision to include 45+ age population by almost two months, the situation would perhaps have been better than present, he said.
